The morning after the call with her sister, Natasha was briefed on what was expected of her once she returned to Shield. Including all the things she was allowed to say and what she couldn't say at the pain of death.
She wasn't sure Fury would believe the lies she would have to tell him, but she knew for sure that as soon as she did go back, both she and the Ricci arm of the Foundation would be under heavy scrutiny.
Finally, she was given a bomb collar, one that was sleek and looked more like a chocker than a death collar. It was also modified not to go off should it be removed improperly. Meaning that she could claim that she was allowed to go because she wasn't able to talk about most things.
Then, the people at Shield could remove it, and she would be able to tell the carefully curated data to earn Fury's trust and put him at ease. After all, there was no way someone would let a spy just go, not unless they were sure they wouldn't be able to talk.
They expected that if they appeared too arrogant and if Fury was allowed to think they were able to outsmart them, he would consider them less of an immediate treat. She personally figured that it had a high chance of working.
…
Natasha couldn't help but cast a look behind her at the entrance to the Ricci mansion as she walked out the front door.
When she first accepted this mission to go undercover within the Ricci family, she had never expected that now, months later, she would leave to go undercover within Shield, with her allegiances changed like that.
Yet, as she had repeatedly learned while working for the Foundation, the world is full of the unexpected and impossible.
Natasha started walking, following the extraction protocol she had made together with Clint. Before long, she came to an alley a few blocks away from the mansion. Inside, she quickly found a hidden phone.
"Spider in the wind, seeking hawk." She spoke the code they had arranged as soon as the call connected, and almost immediately, the call ended again.
Making her way to the other end of the alley, it didn't take long before a car stopped in front of her. Getting inside, the car took off again, barely holding still long enough to even be noticed.
She didn't talk for the entire ride. She just sat there as they drove towards the next point.
This continued for a while, with Natasha getting out of cars and into others, going in and out of buildings, and changing clothes—everything one would need to do if trying to lose a trail.
She did feel kinda stupid doing all this since she knew that she wasn't being followed, but she couldn't really stop now.
After more than six hours of running around trying to escape nothing, she finally got into a car and greeted the driver. "Long time no see, Clint."
"You had me worried for a while, Nat. I was just about to ignore Fury and launch a rescue mission." Clint said as he looked Natasha over for any signs of injury.
Natasha managed a faint smile, adjusting her posture as she sank a bit deeper into the comfort of the car seat. "Well, I'm glad you didn't try that, or I wouldn't know what to tell Laura and the kids."
Natasha did mean that, she knew that no matter how skilled Clint might be. He would never manage to get into Ricci's mansion alone, and if by some miracle that did happen, well, it wouldn't escape.
They even knew about his secret farm, which Fury had set up for him. There wouldn't be anywhere he could flee to where the Foundation couldn't find him.
Clint gave a small nod, his features softening a touch at the mention of his family. "Yeah, it probably wouldn't have been a good idea, but I was worried for you, Nat. not hearing anything from you for so long."
Natasha had been briefed on the fact that Shield was aware of her mission with Graves to Osborn's home. So, if Clint didn't know, it meant that Fury hadn't told him.
This probably wasn't a good sign. It was a clue that Fury believed her compromised, yet she could also use it for her own advantage.
"Well, it wasn't easy to communicate. But surely you were aware of some of the things is did. They did have me go on a rather high-profile mission to Osborn's home." Natasha said, starting her plan of making Clint question Shield more.
Clint, being a skilled agent himself, immediately knew that something was going on and quickly asked. "What are you talking about? As far as I know, you haven't stepped foot outside the mansion until today."
"In fact, I have requested many updates from Fury, but he always said that he didn't know anything." He continued, slowly coming to the realization that Fury might have hidden something from him,
Natasha pretended to be surprised, something that looked perfectly real. "Then Fury must have kept things hidden; I'm not sure what I can discuss with you until I know why he decided to do that."
Clint's eyes narrowed, a mix of concern and frustration flickering across his face. "I was supposed to be your contact. I was the first one who should know about stuff like that! He hid that, lied to my face." He suddenly looked at Natasha with concern.
"What did you experience that he felt he wouldn't tell me?"
"I did indeed experience a lot. As to why he didn't say? I guess we can only ask him."
Clint's grip tightened on the steering wheel, his jaw setting firmly. "Oh, you bet I'm going to ask him."
Natasha observed Clint's reaction closely. She felt touched by his care for her. Yet, the more she felt him caring for her, the harder it was to lie to him.
"Just don't be too hard on him. I still need to give my report." Natasha Joked lightly, trying to lighten the mood a little as they drove towards the Triskelion.
Clint chuckled dryly, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly with Natasha's attempt to lighten the mood. "I'll try to keep it civil, Nat. But he better have a good excuse for this. I mean what's the point of having a contact person if they aren't in the know of what their mark does."
Natasha nodded. She knew well that Clint took his job seriously but also cared deeply for his comrades, which was why this had annoyed him so much.
As they entered the security checkpoint at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, the atmosphere shifted. The guards performed their checks with a professional detachment, but there was an underlying current of scrutiny that wasn't there before.
Inside, the halls of the Triskelion buzzed with the typical activity, but Natasha felt every gaze a bit more acutely. Every whispered conversation seemed to hover around her.
It seemed that more guards stood around the path they took. They looked to be just hanging around, but Natasha was sure they were placed there to keep a look on her. She could feel their eyes following her when she wasn't looking towards them.
Clint must have noticed it as well as he moved closer to her, almost like he was trying to protect her from the unfriendly gazes.
Natasha had expected this, but clearly Clint hadn't, and he was viably displeased with the situation.
As they approached Fury's office, the tension was palpable. The once familiar and somewhat welcoming corridors of S.H.I.E.L.D. Now felt more like a gauntlet, each step taking them deeper into uncertain territory.
Clint knocked sharply on the door to Fury's office before pushing it open without waiting for a response.
Fury sat behind his desk, his one good eye tracking their entrance with an unreadable expression. Maria Hill stood to his right, her posture rigid and her face stern.
"Romanoff, Barton," Fury greeted them, his voice steady. "It's good to see the both of you again."
Clint, typically more restrained, didn't bother with pleasantries. "Boss, we need to talk about what Natasha was doing out there and why I wasn't informed." His tone was more accusatory than inquisitive, reflecting his frustration.
Fury didn't seem to mind at all and instead just looked hard at Natasha as if judging her. "Why don't Romanoff start off by telling us about what happened doing her mission." His sharp gaze locked onto her eyes.
"Natasha felt the focus of everyone in the room settles heavily on her. Yet, instead of starting her report, she began saying what sounded like random words and numbers all mixed together.
The room fell into a stunned silence as Natasha spoke. The words and numbers, nonsensical at first, soon took on a rhythm and an unmistakable pattern. Fury's expression shifted from one of scrutiny to slight confusion, then realization.
He quickly stepped further away from her, Hill and Clint doing the same. All making a wide area of nothing around her. All their eyes scanned her from top to bottom before settling on the black chocker around her neck.
Maria Hill was the first to break the silence. "Romanoff, is that...?" Her voice trailed off as she gestured towards the collar, suspicion, and concern etched across her face.
"Yes." Came Natasha's short reply to which Clint seemed to grow ever more concerned.
He turned to Fury and asked. "Director, do we have an audience?" Even as he addressed Fury, everyone still looked at Natasha, who nodded slightly.
"Yes Barton, some of my other agents are watching along remotely." To his words, Natasha shook her head.
Everyone in the room was smart enough to know what was really going on. Natasha's random words and numbers were, in fact, a code to inform others that she was compromised and explosive.
It might have been two different codes she just meshed together, but thankfully, everyone fully understood what was going on.
Natasha had a bomb around her neck, and whoever put it there was able to listen in on everything going on but not able to watch.
Fury quickly started tapping away at the keyboard; a holographic screen appeared, and the words he was typing became viable to everyone. "Triggers?" it said before he quickly threw a phone to Natasha, which allowed her to type her own responses.
"Tampering, removal, remote." She informed everyone by typing while she also began speaking about something completely different, yet making it sound like she was talking about something important and relevant to the situation.
The other three quickly started to join in on the conversation. Plenty of what they said was nonsense, but they were also able to communicate in secret.
Fury nodded, understanding the gravity of the situation. "We will need to move the debrief somewhere else where my other agents can't listen in. Clint, take her to conference room A-22 ZX."
Clint looked confused for only a moment as he didn't know of such a room, but quickly was able to decode Fury's real message and took Natasha with him towards a shielded room that should be able to block any incoming detonation signal.
While the two raced down the hallways, Fury cursed loudly and started to send out orders, getting their tech specialists and bomb defusion squad to move to the location.
Clint refused to step out of the room at first, but Natasha reminded him that he had a family waiting, and finally, he relented. But he did remain the the next room and watched her through the blastproof window.
Both Hill and Fury also soon joined him as they stood there watching Natasha who stood, waiting patiently for help to arrive.
Before long, the bomb defusal team, led by Agent Ramirez, entered the shielded room wearing their protective suits. They had Natasha lie down as they carefully inspected the explosive device and scanned the tech involved.
Fury picked up the hard-wired intercom and spoke. "Ramirez, how is the situation?"
Ramirez glanced up briefly from his meticulous work, his expression hidden behind the visor of his bomb suit. "Director, the device is sophisticated, not standard issue. Whoever designed this knew what they were doing," he replied, his voice filtered and distant through the protective gear.
"We're proceeding with caution. The remote trigger is disabled for now, but we need to work on safe removal."
Fury nodded, his face grim. "Keep us updated, Ramirez. Every minute counts."
Back in the observation room, Clint watched anxiously, his eyes rarely leaving the glass window that separated him from Natasha. Despite her calm demeanor as she lay on the table, her face conveyed the gravity of her situation, each passing second stretching longer than the last.
Far too long seemed to pass without anything happening, and Fury grew impatient enough to ask what was happening again. "What is taking so long?"
"Sorry, Director. This tech is rather advanced. As far as we can tell, one trigger has been activated. Should it reconnect again, it will blow up with surprising force for such a tiny device. It's incredible how small they managed to make this thing."
Fury's expression tightened. "Now isn't the time to be impressed. Just get it off her."
As time continued to tick by, Fury grew increasingly impressed with the level of tech behind this device; if the amount of effort it took to remove it was anything to go by, he understood why Ricci was willing to send her back.
They very much held Romanoff's life in their hands, making her unable to say anything she wasn't meant to and able to force her to work for them. He couldn't help but think about trying to get his hands on this tech.
Fury's thoughts were interrupted as Ramirez finally spoke again, his voice tense but steady. "We've isolated the primary circuit. We're going to begin the extraction process now. Everyone, please stand by."
In the observation room, Clint leaned closer to the glass, his knuckles white as he gripped the edge of the console. Maria Hill placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, a silent show of solidarity.
Natasha, still on the table, closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. When she opened them again, her gaze was fixed on the ceiling, her expression one of determined calm. She could hardly believe how well this trick was working out.
Clearly it took the utmost effort of Shield to remove this collar, which was specially designed to be removable. So Shield and Fury would easily buy into the idea the Foundation was planning to sell them.
After more than half an hour, with everyone almost holding their breath, they were finally able to remove the collar. At this point, Natasha was quickly moved away as they placed it inside a blastproof container.
"Any chance we can keep the device?" Fury's voice sounded, Making Natasha happy that they wouldn't since she didn't want Hydra to get something like this, which they would if Fury and Shield got it.
"I'm not afraid, sir. We already triggered it. As soon as we open the doors again, there is a chance that it will go off—a very big chance." Ramirez replied back, with clear disappointment in his own voice as well.
Placing the container as far from the door as possible, they all stood around the door, ready to get out as soon as possible. As the door opened, they all rushed outside, but even that wasn't fast enough, as they heard the explosion from behind them.
Thankfully, the container held, and other than a loud sound and the container itself slightly deformed, nothing happened, though had it been around someone's neck, they would be very, very dead.
Clint rushed out to Natasha, and as soon as he saw her, he gave her a hug. "Oh, Nat, what happened to you?"
Behind him came Fury. "I would also like a report on that Romanoff if you are able to speak clearly now."
"Yes, sir, I am ready to give my report, and it's going to be long."
A/N
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